Week 2: Morello Cherry Pie

The Evaluation

3/5 stars: Taste.
4/5 stars: Ease of recipe. Pretty easy and a good choice for a first pie.
3.5/5 stars: Presentation. Not too bad but a little messy.
3/5 stars: Time to make. This is another lengthy one, especially if you're making the pastry yourself.
3.5/5 stars: Overall success.

Suggested Modifications

1. Pie crust was a little thin so I'd suggest making slightly more dough mixture for the base. Just the base though, the top was fine.
2. Add corn flour with the cherries as the filling was a little runny. Or if using fresh fruit, boil with sugar first to create a syrup.

Original Recipes: 
Just for the pastry mix: http://notecook.com/desserts/pies/morello-cherry-pie/
For the pie: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/sandra-lee/cherry-pie-with-lattice-top-recipe2/index.html

Tweaked Recipe

Pastry Ing. (You need two lots of this, one for the bottom and one for the top.)


140g plain flour
30g Icing Sugar
120g butter
3 tbsp chilled water

Pie Ing.

1 tbsp cherry liqueur
800/ 900g morello cherries
pie crust
flour for dusting
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tbsp caster sugar
cream/ ice cream to serve

Pastry Method

1. Sift flour and icing sugar into a bowl.
2. Add butter and rub between fingertips. This should resemble bread crumbs by the end.
3. Add water gradually and stir into a dough with a knife.
4. Flour a surface and roll the dough gently into a ball.
5. Roll out dough onto a sheet of baking paper. Cut out a circle slightly bigger than the top of your pie dish.
6. Cover in cling film and refrigerate for twenty minutes. Repeat this process for the top.

Pie Method

1. Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees.
2. Combine the cherries and liqueur in a bowl.
3. Gently lower the bottom crust over the pie dish. Pour the filling in.
4. Cut the top pie crust into strips about 2cm wide. Take every alternate strip and place them horizontally across the top of the pie. Now take the others one at a time. You want to place these vertically over the pie but weave them in and out of the horizontal strips to form the lattice effect.
5. Use a fork to tidy the edge of the pie.
6. Brush the top of the pie with beaten egg and sprinkle the sugar over the top.
7. Bake for 20 mins or until the surface is golden brown. Then cover with foil. You should bake for 40 mins total so if the surface is brown after 20 mins, another 20. If it's after 30 mins, just another 10.

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This is pretty good pie, especially when eaten with ice cream but there were a few stumbling blocks along the way! Not bad for a first one though :)